The Book Of Elijah: After The Rapture

And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. Jesus actually stopped reading at a comma. The rest of that verse says: The day of vengeance of our God was not yet to be fulfilled, so Jesus stopped reading at that point. That comma represents a year span of time.

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Now look at the verse that John the Baptist fulfilled. There is also a year span of time between that comma and the rest of that verse. The final fulfillment will be in the days of the end time prophet. For he will be the one who comes before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is important to note that he must come before the great and dreadful day not during as many pastors teach. There will be two witnesses who appear during the great tribulation.

They must appear after the end time prophet because they are the double power. After Elijah must come Elisha, the double power. The Old Testament gave many pictures of what is to come. Now the work that is coming in these last days will be greater than the first. Notice, John turned the hearts of the fathers. But not everyone is a father. But now notice the work that is coming in the last days.

The hearts of the children will be turned to their fathers. Every person born on earth has a father. Your heart will be turned to your father. It could mean your earthly father or spiritual fathers. The scripture is vague, but one thing is certain and that is the latter work is much greater than the first. This is the closing of the church. It is the final culmination of all the Old Testament pictures God gave.

From the rapture of Enoch, the salvation of Noah during the flood, the departure of Lot from the destruction of Sodom, to the ascension of Elijah, it is the final fulfillment of all these things, which were a shadow of things to come. Expect to see a show on earth like no other. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: According to the parable, a messenger must come at midnight to warn the virgins. The virgins are the church. Before the Lord comes, He always sends forth the friend of the bridegroom.

Who is giving the Elijah Message now?

He is the forerunner to prepare the people to receive Christ. John the Baptist said: Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. This in itself was a reproach to them and gave their enemies an opportunity to mock, and to say that their God was not able to bring them in!

It is also a shame to us as Christians, when we try to go back to Egypt, or wander in the wilderness and do not take hold of the promises which God has given us to enable us to enter into His rest - which is typified by the Promised Land. So they get into the land at the place called Gilgal and are circumcised there. Then they experience Passover which they never experienced in the wilderness because there is now something to observe and celebrate. The Manna which they ate in the wilderness is no longer their food; now they begin to experience all the goodness God has for them, typified by the corn of the land.

They also ate of the good fruit of the land which God had prepared for them. It is the good fruit of His life. Manna was no longer needed. The good fruit of the land was now available. So when you come to Gilgal there is a completely new beginning for the nation of Israel, and a new way of living for them. And that is what Gilgal actually stands for - things that are really significant for the nation of Israel. But it is also significant, in type, for us, because all the things which were true for them, in type or picture, are the same for us.

We learn that the flesh shouldn't rule over us, that we should have communion with the Lord continually, that there is a Man that has come to take over and to rule in our lives life, and that we are not our own, Christ wants to live His life though us. This is the meaning of Gilgal. Who was the first person to encounter it? Remember when Jacob managed to get Esau to sell him his birth right, which was his as he was the oldest son, and then deceived his father as to which son he was to get the blessing of the first born; his mother told him to run from there because his brother was seeking to kill him because of this.

So he flees to his uncle and on the way he has an encounter with God. This is his first real encounter with the God of his fathers. He is a God that cares for us despite our weaknesses and failings. It was a really significant place for Israel because it speaks of God being someone who loves us, despite the things that we do wrong. However, under Ahab, these places were completely wicked. Bethel, which was the house of God or the gate of heaven, had also become wicked.

We read that Jeroboam had placed golden calves in the house of God because he wanted the nation to worship there; rather than to go to the south, where the temple was. So even though these places were really significant for the Jews they had become defiled. Elijah is visiting all of these places for a reason. He is going on a little journey and I believe it is very important to consider this. If you knew that you were going to be taken and that you only had a short amount of time left here, you would want to install some sort of truths.

I believe this is what God is doing with Elijah in this passage. He is taking him on this journey, actually almost retracing the journey that Israel took when they came across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. This is the first time that we are introduced to a group of people called the school of prophets.

Scripture doesn't say how it came about but when you read the context of this it almost implies that Elijah was the head of this school of prophets and here he is on his last journey, visiting these areas where these people were - maybe as an encouragement to them You have this school of prophets in Bethel and another school of prophets in Jericho.

Elijah is visiting these men, and they know that he is going to leave because they have a certain amount of understanding of what was about to happen.

So it would seem that Elijah had probably set up these schools, and had been involved with them. Not only is he tutoring Elisha to take his place but there are these other schools of prophets as well. There is a real commitment by Elisha to stay with Elijah even though he is told to stay in every place that they went to. I believe that Elijah knows that God is going to take him up, and he is entirely focused on this, so he is visiting the people that are important to him. It would be like that for us, if you knew you had limited time here on earth, what would you do?

Different people say different things. Well Elijah is like that. I believe that he is going to these places because they are what are important to him. I would minister in one place, I would visit another and I would just keep going until I yielded my spirit back to the One who actually gave it to me.

II. THE RAPTURE OF ELIJAH

He wasn't off on some island kicking his feet up - he was doing what he considered to be important. When I look at this passage I am really thrilled that God is still using Elijah which shows that He always has a plan for us right up until our departure. What do we know about Jericho? This is the third place that Elijah goes to. Jericho was the first enemy city that the Israelites encountered when they came across into Canaan. This is the same city that Joshua marched around thirteen times, the last time in absolute silence.

It is where God took the battle against the city on His own behalf. The people didn't have to do anything but rest, trust and believe that God was going to work for them. They had to be obedient to what God wanted them to do but God was the One who was fighting this battle, not them.

We know that it was God who destroyed the walls so that the city crumbled and was taken by Israel. This curse came to pass years later when someone tried to do just that.

So that was the third place that he was sent to, the fourth is the Jordan. What do we know about Jordan? It was there that the nation of Israel crossed into the Promised Land. The priests who carried the Ark went first, because the presence of God had to stand in the midst of the Jordan so that the waters would part. The Jordan always speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ, but we are also are included in His death and in His resurrection also.

Joshua then put up two monuments of stones; one on the other side of the Jordan in Gilgal so that people could look at the stones and remember that they had come out of death and into life. The other monument was actually in the Jordan itself. Joshua put twelve stones in the Jordan, which, when you think about it, can only be seen by the eye of faith. The waters came back over and you can't actually see that monument, but it is there and it remains there to this day. We cannot see that we have died and have been buried with Christ with our natural eyes.

It is a spiritual truth that can only be understood when our eyes have been opened — but it is there. We are buried with Him but we have also been raised to life again in Him. So to sum up, all of these places speak of radical things not only for the nation of Israel but also for us. Gilgal speaks of the fact that there must be a circumcision of the flesh; that the flesh shouldn't rule us and it speaks of tasting the good things of the Lord - which God wants to bless us with. Bethel speaks of God's love and protection for us despite our weaknesses.

Jericho speaks of God's power over the enemy and Jordan tells us that not only have we died, but we are buried with Christ and have been raised again to new life.

If I was going to leave, as Elijah was, I would want to tell my children about the things that really counted in life. And the things that really count are the things we have been talking about. For me, they are the heart of everything in the Christian life. The central focus of really going on with God — to know that He loves us; that we died in Christ, and that God has power over the enemy.

These are the really essential things to experience in our walk with God. When someone knows they are going to depart there is this desire to do things for others; they want to help, and they want to instil something, or do whatever they can before they are taken. It doesn't matter whether they are a believer or a non-believer everyone wants to do something for someone.